Interlude 01: Gary Oak Entry #1

(Takes Place in Chapters 01-04 of the Main Story)

Today, Gary Oak knew was going to be the most important day of his life.

He was going to be starting on his Pokemon Journey finally.

Taking a deep breath, the brunette stood in front of his bedroom mirror, his hands on the dresser, gripping the sides so tight his knuckles were white.

"This is it," Gary muttered to himself looking at his reflection, straight in the eye. "Today is the day you begin to come out from under their shadows."

The shadows he was talking about were big ones though, so he couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

The first one was his Grandfather's shadow, Professor Samuel Oak, a former Pokemon League Champion along with being the world's most leading expert on Pokemon themselves.

Then there was his father's shadow.

Green Oak, the first ever person to become Champion on his first year of a trainer, although most people don't count that considering he was only champion for maybe twenty minutes before someone named Red took him down from the mantle.

But Green Oak was a legend around Kanto for his team and that was a lot to live up to.

Finally there was his sister, Daisy Oak who was a Top Coordinator with a few trophies of her own, showing her skill in the art of Contests.

Gary swallowed knowing that he was practically the spitting image of his father at the age of ten, only without a black jacket.

Gary finally took his eyes off the reflection and grabbed his bag before seeing a broken half of a Pokeball fall out and slowly picked it up.

'It's mine!' He heard the echo of him and a kid named Ash as they fought over it before it broke apart.

Ash Ketchum... His old friend who was now his rival.

Gary gripped the broken part knowing that Ash called it a tie considering they now have a half each, but he accepted it as a loss. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Dad always said a Rival helps someone grow stronger." Gary told himself, although he didn't know if it was true or not.

Taking a deep breath, Gary adopted a cocky look and walked out of his room.

He was well known in Pallet Town for his arrogance and cocky attitude but in reality it was all a facade.

Being related to Samuel and Green Oak makes it hard for him to be his own person so he acted arrogant in order for people to see him.

And it worked in a way, people notice him as Gary Oak, not the son of a Champion or the Grandson of Professor Oak, even if it was in a negative way they still notice him.

Maybe that was why he and Ash were friends when they were younger because Ash didn't care about him being the son of a Champion or the Grandson of Prof. Oak.

He just saw him as Gary.

But they both had the same dream, to be a Pokemon Master so that made them rivals.

Gary did feel bad though as he knew how tough the Gym Battles were going to be due to learning from his Grandfather.

Ash would have to find out the hard way.

Finally making it downstairs, Gary was surprised to see his older sister waiting for him as she drank a cup of coffee, her brown hair down her back as she wore a green shirt and white skirt.

"Good Morning Gary, sleep well?" Daisy asked with a grin.

Gary scoffed with his arms crossed and turned his head to hide the grin. "Well of course, today is the day I become a Pokemon Master," He said a bit arrogantly causing Daisy to giggle and his arrogance faded. "Too much?"

"Just a little," Daisy said seeing through the arrogance. "You sounded like a brat."

"Hey, I'm not a brat." Gary glared causing Daisy to laugh harder.

"Sorry," Daisy apologized calming herself down. "So what Pokemon are you going to choose?"

"Squirtle, it's a well-balanced Pokemon and has good defense," Gary said automatically as he thought about it for years. "Plus they gain a lot of power on becoming a Blastoise making it the perfect starter."

"You have put a lot of thought into it." Daisy said although she had a forlorn tone in her voice, showing some sadness, making Gary uncomfortable. "I just can't believe this day is here already."

"Aw come on Daisy, I didn't cry when you left." Gary said a bit awkwardly.

That caused Daisy to snort. "Yeah because you were jealous that I got to go before you did." She said with a smirk. "And you berated me for catching a Rattata as my starter."

"Rattata's are too common." Gary said a bit annoyed before shaking his head. "Well, I'm going to head on out-."

He paused however on seeing a group of girls out there in cheerleading uniforms causing him to blink.

"Sis," He began a little cautiously. "Any reason why your friends are outside dressed like cheerleaders?"

"Well, I wanted you to be safe so I pulled some strings to have them travel with you." Daisy said causing his eyes to widen.

"No, this is my journey." Gary said causing Daisy to give him a look.

"Gary, things are getting difficult in Kanto, especially with the rumors surrounding that organization called Team Rocket." Daisy said making him back down. "I'm not letting you go alone and Grandpa agrees with me."

Then she gained a sly look.

"Besides, what guy doesn't want girls cheering for him?" She asked with a smirk at Gary's face.

"You're enjoying this." Gary muttered causing Daisy to giggle, not denying it.

Gary muttered under his breath as he held Squirtle's Pokeball with a crowd of people around him outside of the lab.

This wasn't what he had in mind when he would get his first Pokemon, but it was kind of to be expected with who his family was.

'Just bear with it-.' Gary thought before spotting a familiar head walking through the crowd in a bit of a daze.

It was Ash in his pajamas, late as ever.

All of the starters were gone as a Ritchie kid and some girl picked the other two while he chose Squirtle. And out of all of them, he was the only one of the three to get the Pokedex a device that his Grandfather created years ago, although Prof. Oak did mention that someone else might get one as well.

Gary grinned despite being a little confused as something just seemed to be off with how Ash was acting. "Well Ash, better late than never I suppose."

At first, Ash didn't say anything looking like he was ignoring Gary before he blinked in realization and turned towards him, his eyes widening a bit in shocked recognition. "G-Gary Oak?"

Now Gary's confusion was nearly evident as Ash even sounded a bit different before he hid it. "That's Mr. Gary to you, show some respect. Well Ash you snooze, you lose and you're way behind from the very start, I have a Pokemon and you don't."

Gary half-expected for Ash to make a declaration of beating him when he got his Pokemon, but Ash instead just snorted. "Must be some Pokemon if it has to put up with your big head."

Wait, what?

Since when does Ash make insults like that.

This time the surprise did show on Gary's face as Ash was being a contradiction of what he knew from growing up together.

Shaking his head, Gary got back to gloating, thinking that Ash was just messing with him. "I bet you're wondering what Pokemon it is-."

"Squirtle."

Alright that did it.

"How did you know?!" Gary nearly demanded.

"There are three choices, I just chose one." Ash was clearly lying but Gary couldn't really find any fault with that logic.

Gary looked at Ash weirdly before shaking his head. "Well it doesn't matter, I have a journey to start." He said getting in the red car as it showed another person was driving it. "Smell ya later Ashy-Boy."

As the car drove off however, he glanced in the mirror to see Ash with a look of annoyance and disdain making Gary tense.

Why would Ash do that? Yes they were rivals but they were friends once, right?

"Alright Squirtle, Water Gun!" Gary ordered three days later, already past Viridian Forest while the cheerleaders were talking amongst themselves.

He caught up to eight different Pokemon already and he was adding yet another one to his collection as a Nidoran male gave a cry with the jet of water blasting him.

Already in motion, he threw a Pokeball and caught it easily with the Pokeball teleporting to the Lab.

Besides Squirtle and this Nidoran, he caught a Pidgey, Spearow, Rattata, Mankey, Sandshrew, Caterpie and Weedle.

A good start but not enough as he planned to catch more to add a lot of diversity to his team.

'I wonder how Ashy-Boy is doing?' Gary thought with a frown as while in Viridian City he did call the Professor to hear that Ash was given a Pikachu as his starter, something that Gary found weird.

Even his Grandfather found Ash to be acting a bit strange as well, but it was when he heard that Ash was given the second Pokedex that Gary was more surprised before accepting that.

Ash was his rival after all, even if he wasn't as prepared as Gary was who else would he accept in getting the Pokedex?

Looking up to see the sun was beginning to set, Gary sighed knowing that they would make it to Pewter by the end of the day in the car.

At first he was against the idea of the car, but he appreciated it now considering how far he already gotten and how many Pokemon he added to his team.

But he was going to wait a bit before he did challenge Brock as challenging on his first week, while impressive if he won, was stupid and suicidal.

'Ashy-Boy must be in the forest still.' Gary thought looking towards the end of it before chuckling. 'I wonder how he would handle that Samurai guy in there?'

He'll have to call Grandfather later to see if Ashy finally caught a Pokemon or was he still going with only a Pikachu.

"Gary come on, it's getting late." One of the Cheerleaders Viola called out causing Gary to sigh.

While he was against the idea of the Cheerleaders, he was a bit happy that some people supported him.

Even if it was because his sister asked them to.

"What?" Gary asked on the phone with Prof. Oak.

Grandfather just told him that Gary owed him a million Pokedollars, although he knew that the Professor was messing with him.

"Yes, Ash ended up catching a Spearow before ending up in Viridian City with a few scratches, probably from the Spearow Flock." Prof. Oak explained with a nod. "And he's currently in Viridian Forest right now with a Rattata, Caterpie and Pidgeotto added to his team."

"A Pidgeotto?!" Gary asked in disbelief as he heard it was rare to have one at this stage of a journey. "You mean he evolved a Pidgey?!"

"Heavens no, he caught one as a Pidgeotto." Prof. Oak said further making Gary's eyes widen in disbelief. "He should be out of the forest in another day or so."

'And that would mean that Ashy would catch up.' Gary thought not wanting that to happen as he wanted to already have a badge or two by the time they met again.

He was going to challenge Brock in the morning.

"Now is there anything else you want to talk about?" Prof. Oak asked curiously before Gary came to a decision.

"Send Nidoran and I'll send the others back to you." Gary said knowing that both Nidoran and Squirtle would make a good advantage against Brock as he studied up on how they worked.

Plus having a Nidoking on his team along with a Blastoise would make it more powerful.

To Be Continued…

Well here's the first A Surprising Journey Interlude with it showing what happened with Gary Oak from Chapter 01-04 in the main story.

Now some people might complain how Gary obviously won his first badge in only his first week while Austin trained before winning his in the second week.

Gary had the obvious type advantage and remember, Brock went easy with Gary having no badges at the time.

Austin had four Pokemon who didn't naturally have any advantages against the Rock Gym and had to train for them. But this Interlude also showed how Gary really was beneath the arrogance, as a lot of people do bash him in fanfic stories with Ash either beating him or just making him way too arrogant-I myself am guilty of that- but in this story I want to give him a reason.

He's arrogant because people just see him as the son of a former champion and the grandson of Prof. Oak, not as Gary. So he faked his arrogance to hide the loneliness he's had. This is something I'll explore in future interludes as well as show a bit more in the story itself.

It was also why he became friends with Ash because Ash isn't really one to care about something like that-or really know if you think about it.

Austin however only saw the arrogant dick from the show and games and just assumed it about Gary, not really seeing the reason why. That's one of Austin's flaws if you think about it.

Sorry if this seemed a bit rushed compared to the actual story, but considering how I'm just showing what they're doing while writing the actual story something has to be rushed.

Next might be Blue-the Thief Girl- or it might be Team Rocket, haven't decided yet.

Oh and I meant to add the link to the Fan Art, so here it is.

myboimrthrash. Deviantart art/A-Surprising-Journey-Kanto-Arc-614106043

Or you could just look at the cover of this and the actual story.

Alright, this is Spidey Signing Out!